Facts about Nkondo

In the southern highlands of Tanzania, about 60 km north of Lake Nyasa and close to the northern boundary of the Kitulo-Plateau-National park lies the small village of Nkondo (arrow), at an altitude of about 2000m. To get there, a pickup truck and a good dose of patience and composure are needed.

In Chimala, a small village about 80 km east of Mbeya city, we had to leave the main tarmac road and then follow on dusty gravel roads southwards. In countless, steep hairpin bends, the road winds higher and higher into the mountains. After about an hour we reach Matamba, a small town with a few shops and a relatively stable supply of electricity and water.
From Matamba we need two more hours by car through sparsely populated areas until we approach Nkondo. During the raining season the roads become impassable and some of the villages are then only accessible on foot.

Nkondo community consists of five small villages, Lwambo, Masese, Matenga, Ifinga and Nkondo itself, each of them about half an hour to an hour’s walk apart.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in Africa and outside the tourist-oriented coastal areas in the east, people live under primitive conditions. The lives of the people in the sourthern part of Tanzania are shaped by the everyday concern for the livelihood of their families, living in small huts without electricity or running water, and several hours of field work. The cultivation of corn, wheat, and leafy vegetables and some livestock constitute the main source of food supply. Traditionally, the women take care of the household, the children’s education and the cultivation and harvesting of crops. All the work, e.g. tilling of the fields, sowing, tending and harvesting of crops, grinding of corn to process it to corn-flour, is done by hand without the aid of machines.

Vocational training or even an employment are still an exception in this part of Tanzania. Although for some years now there have been both a kindergarten and an elementary school in the area, but often the community does not have the money needed to pay for teachers or to purchase the most basic teaching materials such as paper and pens. Many children only go to school until they have completed the state’s primary school at age 14. Compulsory school attendance ends with 14 in Tanzania, and this sets an end to the education of most children. Most families do not have the financial resources to cover costs of school fees and school uniforms for the Secondary school. On top of that, the labour of every family member is needed to support the family.

The people in vicinity of Nkondo currently have little or no access to the state health system. The nearest medical facility is a small public hospital in Magoye, about five hours walking distance through rough terrain. Even if a patient can take on this arduous path, it is not certain that he can be helped in Magoye, since there are often neither sufficient drugs nor trained personnel on site.

We commited ourselves and set out to improve the situation of the people in and around Nkondo. Emphasis is placed on the lasting promotion of school education, on facilitating the working conditions and the establishment of local medical care. Click here to find out what projects we are planning in detail.